Math Fact Automaticity

When Number Sense isn't Enough

My daughter has a great number sense.  She understands what it means to add, subtract, multiply and divide.  She can skip count all the numbers from 1 to 15. Skip counting means to count by a certain number (3, 6, 9, 12, …) But even with all this understanding, she was still struggling to get her math work finished. 

The reason?

She did not have her math facts memorized. 

She could use five or more strategies to solve a math problem, but nothing was helping her recall her math facts quickly.  A worksheet of 20 problems would take her 45 minutes to an hour and many tears to complete.

I love our math curriculum, Life of Fred.  But my daughter needed to sharpen her math facts.

I used an abacus.  We worked with counters.  Base 10 blocks.  Number bonds, ten frames.  We’ve used pictures to help us remember math facts.  Flash cards. Games.  You name it.  I’ve tried it.  Nothing was sticking.

Kicking It to the Rescue

I am happy to report that I finally found something that works for her.  Please understand that memorizing math facts is not a substitute for teaching math reasoning skills, understanding, and number sense. However, at some point children need to know their math facts.  Leigh Bortins, the founder of Classical Conversations, a national homeschooling program that we use, says that,

“When the basic facts [of mathematics] are obvious, we have the mental space to investigate the obscure, the unknown and the unfamiliar.”

 

Let me introduce you to my favorite math speed drill program: Kicking It!  I bought Kicking It from teacherspayteachers.com.  The author, Kelly Malloy, was a middle school math teacher who noticed that her students did not have their math facts memorized, and therefore were unable do the fractions, decimals, and pre-algebra problems the class required.  If you don’t know how to divide, you can’t reduce fractions. Kelly vowed that if she ever taught elementary math, she would make sure that her students graduated from her class equipped with basic math facts.  She kept her promise by developing this program. (I do not know Kelly Malloy personally, but if she had a fan club, I would be the president.)

Students earn dog tag "belts" as they
work through the program.

 

The Kicking It Difference

When I taught second grade, I used a math drill program called the Mighty Math Club. It worked fairly well, but students were required to memorize all the ones facts, then when they had mastered the ones, they went on to the twos, and so on.  Each new speed drill had 12 new facts they had to master.  This was overwhelming for some students.

 

Kicking It is different because each test (lettered A-Z) only has two new facts and their reciprocal facts.  For example, In Kicking It Multiplication, the A test has only 1 x 1  through 1 x 12.  (Ones are easy!)  But the B test has 1 x 1 through 1 x12, and two new facts  2x2, 2x3 and its reciprocal fact 3 x 2.  Once that test has been passed, the student goes to test C that has the ones facts, 2x2, 2x3, 3x2, and two new facts and their reciprocals 2x4, 2x5, 4x2, 5x2.  Memorizing the facts just a little bit at a time is so much easier.  Another reason I think Kelly Malloy is a genius, is that she does not always introduce the math facts in order.  Students learn the 9s and 8s facts sometimes before the 3s and 4s.  For some reason, the higher facts take some students a longer time to learn.

 

Three Parts to Kicking It

Part 1: Students are to practice flashcards, introduced in the same order as the A-Z tests. 

Part 2: Students have one minute to practice ring facts.  This consists of 29 math facts that they try to recite and answer in one minute or less. These are printed on colored paper and have belts, similar to karate belts, that they try to earn.  Every time they pass 4 of the timed tests, they get a new “belt” with new facts to master.

Part 3: These are the timed tests lettered A-Z.  Each test has 60 problems. Students work on the same test each day until they can answer all the problems in 2 minutes and 40 seconds or less.  (One minute is preferable, but some children can’t write that quickly).

 

If you want to read more about this amazing program, I highly suggest you go to the source.  Kelly Malloy has an excellent blog post about it.

 

Happily Ever After

My daughter after she earned her First Degree Blackbelt
Multiplication facts 1-9. She has now mastered 1-12.

My eight year old son has a purple belt in multiplication, and my daughter now has passed the entire multiplication program with a third degree black belt in multiplication. She is now working to earn a yellow belt in division. She can look at a math fact, and write the answer without having to think about it.  It is automatic.  Remember that quote from Leigh Bortins? My daughter is now able to focus on things like fractions, factoring, and other harder math skills because multiplication is easy for her.   A two digit by one digit multiplication worksheet with 20 problems used to take my daughter over an hour.  A few weeks ago, she completed  one in just seven minutes.  She told me that this is her favorite math program she has ever used.  “Math used to be hard for me, Mom.  Now I just know the answers.  It’s a nice feeling.”

 

Some modifications that worked for our family:

1. I put the lettered tests in page protectors.  My children use a dry erase marker to write the answers.

2. Instead of using a timer, I used a stopwatch.  I wrote the time it took for my children to solve all 60 problems directly on the test.

3. I allow a test to be passed if they can solve all the problems accurately in under 5 minutes.  My daughter has dyslexia and my son has some anxiety and other special needs, and this worked better for us.  However, I have my children do two tests a day.  First, they complete the test they have been working on.  Then they go back to an earlier test and try to complete it in under 2 minutes and 40 seconds.  My daughter has completed all the tests in multiplication in under 5 minutes, and tests A-O in under 2 minutes and 40 seconds.

4. I take the tests, too.  It makes my children more eager to learn when they see me working beside them.  And let me tell you, passing the test under 60 seconds is hard for me.  I average one minute and eight seconds. To learn more about this process, read my apprenticeship blog post.

Students compare the "Wax On; Wax Off"
concept to memorizing math facts.

5. Several students in our homeschooling community are working through Kicking It. Once in a while we get together to play some math games and a real MMA Sensei teaches some basic martial arts skills to go with the Ninja themed program.

 

Playing Kicking It! math games

I have only used Kicking It! Multiplication and Division, but Kelly Malloy also has Kicking It programs in addition, subtraction, and factors.(I’m excited about the factors program!)

 

If your child is struggling with their math facts, I highly recommend Kicking It!

Are you interested in a Spelling Program that takes a similar approach?  You can read about the spelling program I created here.  You can purchase Automatic Spelling here.

Using Apprenticeship to learn to solve a Rubik's cube

A Lego covered Rubik's Cube!

In the previous blog post, I explained how I used the Trivium to help me learn to solve a Rubik’s cube. When my son asked me to help him learn, I wondered how I would be able to teach him.  He was only 6 years old, and I knew nothing about the cube.  But after about a month of practice, I was able to solve a 3x3 on my own.  Now I needed to help my son learn. 

The second tool I used to help my son solve a Rubik’s cube is Apprenticeship.  I spent hours learning the steps to solving a cube, memorizing algorithms, and solving the cube, one layer at a time.   By this time, he had already found some strategies to solve the white face by himself.  I let him solve the white face.  Then I showed him over and over again how to solve the second layer.  Finally, he was able to take a little ownership.  I sat beside him while he practiced the second layer.  He asked questions.  When he was able to solve this layer without any help, I showed him the next step.  Over and over again.  We chanted algorithms.  We looked for patterns.  (In the final step to solving a cube, there is a yellow 2x2 square that spins around the top layer as we are moving the cube through the algorithm. It is fun to watch, and if the square disappears, we know that we have not completed the algorithm correctly.)

An apprentice to a blacksmith will not start making nails on his first day.  Instead he will stand beside the master blacksmith and watch him maybe thousands of times.  Gradually the master will start giving the apprentice a little more responsibility.  Eventually the apprentice will be able to make a nail, while the master blacksmith will continue to make horse shoes.  This process is one of my favorite tools for teaching.  It takes a long time.  It takes a lot of work.  But the rewards are infinite. 

Apprenticeship works for more than just Rubik’s cubes and blacksmithing.   I use this tool with my daughter when she studies Language  and Writing.  When we study the English Language, I model how to parse sentences into parts of speech.  We have a series of questions to ask.  For example, the sentence might be: “ Jonny solved a Rubik’s Cube.”  We would ask: Who solved a Rubik’s Cube? Jonny: Subject Noun.  What is being said about Jonny? Jonny solved: Verb transitive.  Solved What? Cube:Direct Object.  What kind of cube? Rubik’s: Possessive Noun Adjective.  When I first exposed my daughter to this series of questions, we started very simply.  The sentences only had two words.  “Suzy sang.”  I told my daughter I would not allow her to say anything.  She just needed to listen to me over and over again.  Who sang? Suzy: Subject noun.  What is being said about Suzy? Suzy sang: verb intransitive.  I repeated this pattern many times.  Tommy danced.  Who danced? Tommy: Subject noun.  What is being said about Tommy? Tommy danced: verb intransitive.  After about the 10^th sentence, my daughter finally said, “Mom, can I do it please?”  And you know what?  She did it perfectly.

I also use apprenticeship when I teach my daughter to write.  I model making keyword outlines, writing from the keyword outline, adding dress ups like adverbs and adjectives, varying sentence openers, etc.  When we first started using Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW)’s writing program, I wrote most of the assignment myself, with my daughter sitting at my side.  Andrew Pudewa, IEW’s founder, says, “You can’t help your child too much.”

 The teacher in me feels like this is cheating.  It isn’t.  Of course, I do not let my daughter take credit for my work, but I want to model good writing so that students can learn from a master.  Just like in English Grammar, my daughter started out by just observing, then gradually took ownership of her own writing.

This fuzzy picture shows my son's first cube
that he solved entirely by himself!

 

Apprenticeship is a beautiful and effective way to teach. My children learn with me.  They know that learning is a lifelong process because they see me continuing to learn.  My children are better writers, readers, and thinkers because of the way we learn together. 

On Easter day 2017, my six year old son solved his first 3x3 completely on his own.  Later that month he had major surgeries and several complications.  He was sick for months, so he decided to take a hiatus from solving Rubik’s cubes.   He has just recently started to solve them again.  I will continue to sit beside him, cheering him on.

Using the Trivium to solve a Rubik's Cube

My six year old held a Rubik’s cube in his hand.  Turning it slowly, he looked at me.  “Mom.  I want to learn how to solve a Rubik’s cube.”

I could tell he was serious.  This was not a whim of a little boy.  I remembered the promise I made to one of his doctors.

“Help him find things that he can be good at.  Adaptive sports are fine if that is what he wants, but also invest his time in things like music, history, robotics.” 

 Dr. Timothy Brei is one of the most celebrated physicians in his field.  Dr. Brei and my son have something in common.  They both have Spina Bifida.  The Rubik’s cube seemed to be a way to keep my promise to Dr. Brei.  But I knew nothing about Rubik’s cubes. How on earth was I going to teach my son how to solve a Rubik’s cube? The first thing I needed to do was learn to solve a cube myself.

I used two major tools to help my son solve the Rubik’s cube. In this post, I’m going to focus on the first tool: The Trivium.  I will explain how the second tool, Apprenticeship, helped us to solve the cube in the next blog post.

I love Classical Education.  I educate my children classically at home, and we are part of a classical homeschool group that meets once each week called Classical Conversations.  When I first started studying Classical Education thirteen years ago, I thought it was kind of stuffy and dry.  Students learn Latin.  The memorize declensions.  They read old books.  It didn’t sound quite as fun as traditional learning to me.  But I have changed my position on that.  Classical education is not dry.  It is rich.  And the tools of Classical Education can be used to learn just about anything.  To show you how versatile the tools of Classical Education are, I am going to explain how I used the Trivium to learn to solve a Rubik’s cube.  (Not quite as stuffy and dry as it sounds, eh?)

In ancient Greece and Rome, students used the Trivium to learn new skills. Trivium means “three roads”  in Latin.  The three parts (or roads) to the trivium are Grammar, Dialectic, and Rhetoric.  During the Grammar stage, students memorize definitions and facts, with very little concern to meaning. While students can work through all the stages, young children naturally fall into the Grammar stage because they are able to memorize facts without a lot of effort.   Have you ever met a preschooler that can name all different kinds of dinosaurs?  My five year old loves Pokemon cards.  He can tell me the names of each of the characters on the cards, and he can remember how much health and damage each one has.  (I, however, have no idea what that means.  Nor do I care.)  The Grammar of the Trivium, not to be confused with English Grammar, is the basics of the topic you are studying.  Students in the Grammar stage memorize names and dates in History, math facts in Math; they memorize lists in Science such as the five kingdoms of living things. They memorize the list of prepositions for English Grammar. They memorize the states and capitals. Their brains are wired to memorize facts, so classical educators try to fill their long term memory with as many good facts as possible.

To use Grammar  to learn how to solve a Rubik’s cube, I first memorized the colors of the cube: white is always opposite yellow, green is opposite of blue, and red is opposite of orange.  Then I memorized the 7 steps to solving the cube. (White cross, white face, top layer, middle, yellow cross, yellow face, and bottom layer.)  I memorized the notation.  R means turn the right layer clockwise.  R’ means turn the right layer counter clockwise.  I learned how to orient the cube.  Then I started memorizing algorithms.  (I’m probably the only Rubik’s cuber that sings algorithms to herself.) If I have a yellow bar, then I need to use these steps to get the yellow cross; but if I have a yellow hook, then I need to use a different set of steps to solve the yellow cross.  All of this memorization began my journey of helping my son learn how to solve a Rubik’s cube.  While I was memorizing these facts, my son started playing with a 2x2 cube (instead of a traditional 3x3).  The 2x2 uses some of the same algorithms as the 3x3, but there are not as many steps to solve the cube.  This was a great introduction to learning to solve the 3x3.  He also had a pyramid puzzle with 4 faces.  He was able to solve it just by playing with it for a while.  These two simpler cubes helped him to understand the more complex 3x3.

The next stage of the Trivium is Dialectic.  As I said before, learning a new skill can take a student through all the stages, but children naturally fall into this stage around age 10 or 12 to middle school and early high school.  This is the time that students start questioning everything.  They tend to disagree with authority and argue about many things. During the Dialectic stage, students study logic.  They ask questions and answer many.  They use the grammar they have memorized and start to make sense of it.  They see how the facts they memorized fit into the world.

I used Dialectic tools to learn to solve the 3x3 cube.  I started with the memory work I had acquired.  I watched Youtube videos of skilled Rubik’s cube solvers show how to solve a cube step by step.  I practiced each algorithm many times.  I called a few Rubik’s cube solving friends to help me when I got stuck.  We had 5 cubes around the house, so I practiced each step five times before going on to the next step.  I first solved the white face on all five cubes.  Then I solved the middle of all five cubes.  And one day, I finally solved a 3x3 without any assistance.   This process took me about a month.  (I am sure there are many skilled cube solvers that learned to solve a cube in less time than me.)

The final stage of the Trivium is the Rhetoric Stage.  This is when you take the skills you have acquired from the Grammar and Dialectic stage, and you are able to teach what you have learned.  I started  a Rubik’s cube solving club that met at my house.  I was ready to help my son learn to solve a cube. I did use grammar and dialectic stages to help my son learn the cube, but there is also another tool I used to help him. I will explain how I used Apprenticeship to teach my son to solve a 3x3 Rubik’s cube in the next blog post.

Suzuki and IEW

As an Essentials tutor, I get a lot of questions about why we use Institute for Excellence in Writing's (IEW) History Based Writing Lessons.  I can see their point.  After the following techniques are introduced, students are required to have an ly adverb, a quality adjective, a strong verb, a who or which clause, and subordinate clause in each paragraph.  Students are also required to vary their sentence openers.  One sentence should start with a prepositional phrase, another with an adverb, and so on.  Each paragraph also needs an alliteration, a metaphor or a simile.  If the assignment is a five paragraph essay, then each paragraph must contain all these stylistic techniques, dress ups, and decorations.  It can make the writing seem a little awkward and forced.  So why do I choose to have my children in this program?   

To understand the reasons why IEW requires such a strict rubric, it is helpful to understand a little bit more about Andrew Pudewa, IEW’s founder.  Mr. Pudewa is a violin teacher.  He actually studied under Shin’ichi Suzuki.  I am a cellist, and when I heard that Pudewa studied with Suzuki, I could easily see the parallels between IEW and the Suzuki method.

 I am not a certified Suzuki teacher and I am not a certified IEW instructor, but I am very comfortable with both methods of teaching. I learned to play cello with the Suzuki  method.  In high school, I was so inspired by Suzuki’s methods that I wrote a report on his book, Nurtured by Love.  It is on my shelf today and I try to read it each summer as one of my inspirations for teaching.  Today I am a cello teacher for beginning cellists and I tutor seven children with the IEW method.  I also homeschool my ten year old daughter using IEW.

Here are 4 of the components of the Suzuki Method of learning music:

1. Scales, Arpeggios, and drills.  (This is not exclusive to the Suzuki method for learning an instrument. Most musicians spend much of their practice time playing scales, drills, and arpeggios.  A soloist will not play a concert of just scales, but music often consists of these things.  A soloist who has practiced drills will be able to play difficult passages with ease. 

This is why IEW has a checklist that requires students to practice stylistic techniques, sentence openers, dress ups, and decorations. While it may seem like a lot of fluff, practicing these techniques will enable students to use them when they need them in any kind of writing.  I remember studying metaphors and similes in school, but I was never asked to use it in a paper.  IEW students write a metaphor or simile in every paper. This is just good practice.  The assignments from IEW may not produce good writing, but it does help to produce good writers.

2. Parental help.  When Suzuki took a new young student, he first taught the student’s parents.  He asked the parents to hold that tiny violin (sometimes 1/16 the size of a full violin) and learn to play Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.  He gave the parents a few lessons in front of the child, but would not allow the child to participate.  The parents had to complete assignments at home.  Watching and listening to the parent, the child wanted to mimic what they did.  The result of this was two-fold. The young child was motivated to learn to play like his parents, and his parents were able to help him learn. 

Similarly, Pudewa says that parents cannot help their child too much.  In IEW, parents are given so many tools to help their children. From live seminars, to the Teaching With Structure and Style dvds, to webinars, articles, books, and teachers’ manuals, there are so many resources to equip parents.  I have taken advantage of the live webinars that Mr. Pudewa holds each month for Essentials tutors, which walks us through a mock lesson that we will teach later in the semester.  IEW is designed to walk students through all 9 units each year.  In the first few years, the student is somewhat like an apprentice to their parents.  My ten year old sometimes needs help selecting an appropriate –ly adverb, or rearranging a sentence so that it starts with a prepositional phrase.  IEW allows me to model and provide those things for her.  This is not cheating.  This is equipping.  Eventually, she will not need me to help her find the correct word.  Next year, she will be more independent in her writing.  

3. Ear Training. Suzuki students listen to recordings of master musicians who play the pieces they are studying.  These young musicians sometimes listen to the piece hundreds of times.  This trains their ears to play in tune, follow the complicated rhythms, and play with expression. 

In IEW, Pudewa recommends daily reading great literature aloud to children, even older children.  This trains students’ ears to hear what good writing sounds like.  Reading aloud has done wonders for the lyrical writing of my own children.  They write with expression.  They know when something doesn’t sound right.

4. Gradual increase in difficulty.  Suzuki’s music books gradually get more difficult and the student learns a little more with each piece of music.  For example, a student may be asked to play an already familiar piece in a different key, or with a different fingering and a different position on the fingerboard.  Cellists are required to learn 3 different staves.  The Bass Clef is the simplest.  When a cellist has mastered the Bass Clef, she will need to learn the Tenor Clef.  Suzuki gently introduces this by allowing the student to play familiar pieces in a different key and notation.  When the Tenor Clef notes seem more familiar, the student will be asked to play a new piece of music in the Tenor Clef.  The same process is repeated with the Treble Clef.

Writing five paragraphs about Amelia Earhart

Vygotsky called this teaching technique of gradually increasing the difficulty scaffolding.  Mr. Pudewa calls it Easy + 1.  Although there are many components to the paragraph checklist in IEW’s writing assignments, every student starts by adding just one –ly adverb to the paragraph.  When that becomes easy, the child will add an –ly adverb and new skill, like a quality adjective.  When the –ly and quality adjectives become easy, they will have a third requirement for their paragraphs. This continues until all the skills are mastered and practiced in each paragraph.

It is easy to see how Pudewa’s educational journey with Suzuki has helped him to mold the IEW program into what it is today.  Suzuki’s methods made me the cellist I am today, and I know that IEW will continue to sharpen the writing skills of my students.

Defeating a Dyslexic's Nemesis: Reading Aloud

“What’s the best way to defeat an enemy?”- Sensei Wu, Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu

It has been about a year since I intentionally decided to read out loud more.  Honestly, I would go weeks without reading a single book to my children.  We homeschooled.  I taught Math, and Science, and Spelling, and reading mechanics.  They did workbooks.  It was dry.  It was missing something.  I knew what was missing, but I didn’t know what to do about it.  I love reading.  I really do.  To myself.  But out loud… Shew. That’s another ballgame.  When I read out loud, dyslexia rears its ugly head.  I suddenly can’t remember how to pronounce a word I’ve said many times.  I find an unfamiliar word that I just skipped while reading to myself.  The words get jumbled up in my head.  On paper they sometimes magically rearrange themselves into a big hairy mess.

            Reading out loud has been my nemesis for years.  In college, reading aloud sometimes kept me from getting the parts I wanted when I auditioned for plays.  I was the kid in grade school who would count how many paragraphs until my turn to read out loud during reading circle.  Then I would read ahead, practicing the words in my head for the paragraph I knew would soon be mine.  I would be so focused on that paragraph that I would have no idea what was going on in the story, and I would miss my cue.  I missed a lot of recess because of this.  I remember visiting my cousin’s church in maybe sixth grade.  The Sunday school class was reading The Horse and His Boy, one of the Chronicles of Narnia books.  Each student took turns reading a WHOLE CHAPTER.  A whole chapter of British literature?  I asked if I could stop at after one page.  When studying teacher education in college, I sometimes had to read to different classes during my field experiences and internship.  It scared me.  One year a teacher asked me to read The Secret Garden out loud to her class.  Have you read The Secret Garden?  Some of it is written in Yorkshire.  Yorkshire.  I figuratively broke into hives.

            When my children were very little, I found the Five in a Row curriculum. It is a sweet way to introduce picture books to your littles.  I loved it. Each week we read the same book five days in row (hence the name…)  We read Madeline, and The Story about Ping, A Pair of Red Clogs, and so many other sweet stories.  We found the countries where they were located on the map.  It was easy and sweet. We counted and cooked. My children and I have many fun memories from that time.  Picture books are no big deal for me to read. Twenty-four pages with simple words? I can do that.

            Chapter books are a different hairy deal.  As my children got older, I wanted to introduce them to some of my favorites:  The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, Holes, The Tale of Despereaux, The Secret Garden, Ramona and Her Father.  I just didn’t have the stamina or the confidence to do it.  We would start a book and then never finish it. 

            By the end of the day, I’m exhausted.  My dyslexia kicks in and words on a page look like an unscramble the word puzzle.  (I’m actually really good at unscramble the word puzzles, because that is how words look to me all the time.) Reading out loud at bedtime just won’t work for me about 80% of the time.

            I was beginning to feel like this was hopeless.  My children would never experience listening to chapter books with me.  Then I started to listen to Sarah MacKenzie’sRead Aloud Revival Podcast.  Sarah says that you should read out loud even to your older children.  I had never really thought about it, but I was worried that I was losing the window of opportunity to read aloud with my oldest child.

            Here is how I went from reading almost nothing with my children each day to reading for several hours each day.  It was a gradual process. 

            The first thing I did was try to identify why reading aloud was intimidating for me.  The main reason was that I was just too tired at bedtime to read, and for some reason I had it in my head that I had to read chapter books at night to my kids in order to be a good parent and educator.

I decided to implement a Morning Time. Your morning time probably won’t look like mine.  I started just with Bible, a history storybook and some poetry.  Last year, I used Our Island Story about British history.  This year we are reading A Child’s Story of America.  I also love James Baldwin’s anecdotal history stories, and the Story of the World.  Our Morning Time at the beginning was Bible and History, and Poetry.  Already I was reading more.  I’m most alert in midmorning, so we usually started 8:30 or 9:00 am.  Then the kids did their workbooks and math and we went on with our day.  After the children got used to a few subjects for morning time, I gradually added one more.  (I think I added 1 subject each month.)   Here is our Morning Time schedule after 14 months (on a day when we don’t have any appointments or anywhere to go. You can read about how I modify this when we have a busy day here.) Our current schedule includes Bible, Precepts, Storybook of Science, A Child’s History of the United States, The Blue Fairy Book, and a chapter or two of whatever chapter book we are reading.  I finish Morning Time by reading Life of Fred, our math curriculum.  Then we move on to our next part of the day.  When we are home, my oldest two children can listen for up to two hours. They play quietly, or draw, paint, or do something.  I love using “living books” as our source of information.  Our history, science, and Life of Fred are all living books.  Living books draw children into a story to help them remember details.  The term living books was made popular by Charlotte Mason, an educator in the 1800s. Mason believed that history is best learned when you study famous people by looking at their childhood.  George Washington and Cherry Tree is an example of an anecdotal history story.  (I know that is just a tall tale, but it does help children link a relatable story to a famous person). I’m much too eclectic to use Charlotte Mason’s method exclusively, but I do love living books, and her ideas about nature walks, and narration.  I don’t require a lot of writing or worksheets about what we read. But we do discuss.  Yesterday, I read “The White Cat” from The Blue Fairy Book.  My seven year old chimed in that the story reminded him of Repunzel because the white cat, who was really a princess under a spell, was locked up in a tower for years when a prince tried to rescue her by climbing the tower.  I didn’t prompt him to tell me that.  My children are used to making connections because we do this many times each week.  I continue to add things to our Morning Time.  I want to do some music and art appreciation.  I want to read simple biographies.  I want to add a Five in a Row picture book. 

Here are some benefits that I have seen in the 14 months we have made reading aloud the focus of our day.  I am a much more confident reader.  Many of the books I read were written in the 1800s, with a broad vocabulary and complicated sentences. That makes reading chapter books a piece of cake for me, and it strengthens my children’s vocabularies and sentence structures.  Also, not to brag, but my Yorkshire is en pointe now!

My daughter studying the art of writing in her Essentials class using Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW)’s History Based Writing Lessons.  When I read out loud to her, she is able to identify strong verbs, quality adjectives, -ly adverbs, different kinds of sentence openers, alliterations, and much more.  Reading aloud makes her a stronger writer. If you are familiar with the Suzuki method for learning an instrument, you know that a major part of Suzuki is that children listen to the pieces they will eventually play hundreds of times.  This trains their ears to play a piece like a master.  Similarly, reading out loud trains a writer’s ear to write like a master.

Another added perk of reading out loud is that my children have become better readers.  They read out loud for ten to fifteen minutes out loud each day.  They do it because they see me model reading out loud all morning.  My son is a good reader, but he has never really liked reading to himself.  In the past month, I have actually seen him pick up a book to read for pleasure. This is so encouraging to me.  I want my children to be vivacious readers, and I feel like we are starting to take a step in the right direction.  My daughter also has dyslexia, but she now reads above grade level, and her out loud reading is much better than mine was at her age.

Reading with friends on a cozy, rainy day

I have found that at bedtime we do read a little more now.  Like a snowball rolling down a hill, our reading amount is continuing to grow.  Picture books are my choice for bedtime, but my daughter and I recently took turns reading Flora and Ulysses (one of our new favorites) and last night, my youngest requested a chapter from Winnie the Pooh.

“What is the best way to defeat an enemy?”

“It is to make him your friend.”- Sensei Wu

Our family has made a friend out of reading aloud.  (Leave it to me to use a CARTOON to illustrate a blog post about reading.)

Shakespeare Camp: "Though this be madness, yet there is method in it."

I’ve been called a special kind of crazy on more than one occasion.  I’m usually told this after I announce my plan for the summer’s Shakespeare Camp. 

What is it that makes Shakespeare so unapproachable? The Bard of Avon intimidated me in high school.  I had this idea in my head that my dyslexia would keep me from understanding the language. During my freshman year, I completely fell in love with the story of Romeo and Juliet.  It’s the first real tragedy I studied, and I still get that heart wrenching feeling when Romeo doesn’t receive the letter in time.  It is one of the most moving stories I have ever read.  For extra credit, I memorized Juliet’s lines in the balcony scene.  I’m sad to say that they were the only Shakespeare words that I memorized while I was in school.  When I was rereading the play this week, the words of the balcony scene greeted me like a familiar friend.  I wish I had memorized more Shakespeare in my youth.

After I got married, I got a job as a teachers’ aide at a classical school.  I completely fell in love with Classical education, and I was inspired by young students who studied Shakespearian plays.  The next year, I was hired as a fourth grade at a traditional school, and I decided that my students would perform The Fifteen Minute Hamlet, a play my college drama troop had performed, as a big end of the year program.  The Fifteen Minute Hamlet is a one act play by Tom Stoppard.  It is pure Shakespeare, ultra-abridged.  I loved it.  The quick pace makes the tragedy almost comical.  My class of 7 boys and 2 girls loved it. Who wouldn’t love ghosts, and poison, and sword fights, and skulls? In fact, many years later (am I showing my age?!) I got this lovely note from one of the students who had been in that first fourth grade class.

“Dear Mrs. McAdams,  

So a couple of days ago, we started reading Hamlet in my AP English class. My teacher was and still is extremely impressed that I had been exposed to Shakespeare in fourth grade. As I'm reading through it though, all I can think about is our absolutely fantastic performance that we did. It's almost next to impossible to read it because I'll hear Noah and Jacob and Isaac and Kelly and everyone else saying the lines! However, just that little edited version we read has made a world of a difference for me. I cannot thank you enough for making us read through something that people eight years above us were reading and helping us understand it. You've made AP English easier!"

This is the number one reason I teach Shakespeare to children: to build confidence.  When you expose children to something that seems hard and they understand a little bit about it, it makes them believe that they can do even more.  I love teaching hard things to young children.  It’s my philosophy of education in a nutshell.  Some of my other reasons for teaching Shakespeare are the story, the language, the poetry, and the fun.

FAQ about Shakespeare Camp

Where did you get the idea for a Shakespeare Camp?!

 I’m not going to bore you with all the details of how Shakespeare camp came to be.  Here’s my abridged version.  I was very familiar with teaching The Fifteen Minute Hamlet to kids.  I also spent five summers in high school and college as a camp counselor.  My husband moved me out in the country on some land that feels “campy” to me.  Naturally, all this begs the question: Why NOT have a Shakespeare Camp? (“Why not” is also a part of my philosophy of education.  Just call me Vygotsky. )

What Is Shakespeare Camp?

This will be my third summer to host a Shakespeare Camp.  I call it camp because we play campy games like Capture the Flag (Capulets versus Montegues), my version of Giants, Wizards, and Elves (Midsummer Night’s Dream- Fairies, Humans, and Elves), archery, etc. 

Every day we have devotions by the cross.

We make crafts and sing songs. 

It is a day camp, with a Shakespearian theme.  Each year we study and perform a play.  We have performed Hamlet, Midsummer Night’s Dream, and this year we will perform Romeo and Juliet.

We have memory work set to music.  (Side note: Today my lovely daughter said exasperatingly, “This is what my mom does.  She takes perfectly good music and turns it into school!”  She is not wrong.)  The memory work is pure Shakespeare.  We study iambic pentameter.  We study the life of William Shakespeare. I wrote a song about the Bard's life set to the tune of the Beverly Hillbillies. We study tragedies and comedies.  We practice and preform an abridged version of the play.  We have fun with language and poetry.  Shakespeare camp makes Shakespeare memorable and enjoyable.  I do not strive for a perfect performance.  It is not a drama camp.  I’m more focused on learning and enjoying the story.

What about all the heavy themes?

Yes.  That’s a tricky one.  Some children are not ready to hold a skull and lament, “Alas. Poor Yorik.” Honestly, I’m still wrestling with Romeo and Juliet.  It’s such a sad story.  I always go back to the Bible.  What does the Bible say about this? Was the decision to end his life a good one?  Did anything good come out of Romeo and Juliet’s deaths? Can God use tragedy for his good and glory?  I believe He can and He does.  I have had a few students that request to take a role other than the ghost in Hamlet, or to be a character that lives. I always honor those requests.  A few parents have kept their sensitive children home instead of performing in the tragedies.  They join us when we do a comedy.  At the moment, I’m considering Taming of the Shrew for next year.

And the question you are all waiting for:  When is the next Shakespeare Camp?

We will meet at my house on Friday June 1, and the week of June 4-8 from 9am to 12:30 pm.  Our performance will be on Friday, June 8 at 7:00 pm.

The cost is $35 per child and $30 for each additional child in the same family. *As always, if money is an issue, please let me know.  We will work something out! The cost goes toward supplies, memory work CD, copies, and my time.

Students must be ages 5-12.  This is for any child.  Every year I have children who are in traditional school as well as homeschoolers. If your child is part of the Challenge program, they are welcome to apply to be a Counselor in Training (CIT). This is a volunteer position that would count for service hours. 

I prefer to have parents stay.  If you need to drop off your children, please arrange that with me in advance.

Please let me know if you are interested!  We would love to have you!